Standard of the World: A 60 Second History of Cadillac

The Cadillac XLR Is A Punk Rocker, Like Iggy Pop (60 Sec)

Few companies have as storied a history as Cadillac. Founded in 1902 by Henry Leland (who would later go on to create Cadillac's biggest competitor, Lincoln), Cadillac has always been a main stay in the luxury car market. While Cadillac's prestige as fallen in the last 20 years (and as you watch the video, you'll be able to see why as the cars become less and less exciting), Cadillac is now trying to reinvent itself as a real world competitor.

What I find most appealing about this ad, besides the graphical wow of it all, is the way that you can visually track social change as portrayed by the design of each successive vehicle. The cars featured in the ad are as follows:
1) A horseless buggy, the automobile in its infancy at the turn of the century, a 1903 Cadillac Runabout.
2) An antique car in full and the face of the teens, a 1912 Cadillac Model 30 Touring.
3) A full classic and quintessential 1930's Depression-era luxury car, a 1931 Cadillac V16 Fleetwood Phaeton
4) First full fendered Cadillac and modern looking car and the defining look of the 1940's, a 1941 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 62
5) The evolution of fins and the aerospace influence 50's, a 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible
6) Jet-age influence and fins at their maximum, a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Convertible
7) 1960's modernism and general badassedness, a 1968 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe
8) 1970's American gas-guzzler (the beginning of the end of the US auto industry), a 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Convertible
9) 1980's minimalism and excess, a 1985 Cadillac Seville
10) Attempted 1990's revival in the form of a slab-sided Mercedes SL clone, a 1992 Cadillac Allante
11) 21st Century rebirth and creased art and science design, a 2007 Cadillac XLR-V

We've come full circle, from the very birth of Cadillac as a mold-breaking company back to Cadillac as a trend setter (or at least it would like to think so). Cultural influences were what created every car featured, from the simple Runabout at the beginning, to the Frank Hershey designed V16 Phaeton, through the Harley Earl years of the late 1940's and 1950's, becoming modern under the eye of Bill Mitchell in the 1960's and 1970's, and finally showing the reluctance to change that Cadillac is now trying to correct. Even if you aren't a car person, you still know when each of those cars was built, and that is the true test of cultural impact. A really great ad, on the face of it.

(If the video isn't working, click HERE to view it)

Cars At Large Classic Car Search Engine

Google, in its continued quest to make everyone's lives easier, has recently released a new program that allows you to create your own customized search engine. I am no tech wiz or anything when it comes to the computer, but I am always up for trying new things. As such, I have decided to try to use this new application to create a special search engine for finding out information on classic cars. My special search engine, Car At Large Search Engine, is still a work in progress, as I am trying to smooth out the general look of it, but I'd like to ultimate try to make into a useful tool for searching information related to classic cars. Please do check it out and drop me a line with sites you might like to add to the search list, or if you'd like to help out in making the search engine grow.

Low Mileage Conundrum: 1970 Chevelle LS6 with 29 Miles

One of the more bizarre aspects of the collector car world are ultra low miles cars. I am speaking of vehicles that were laid away, for whatever reason, and were never really driven. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, but there are cars as old as half a century that have turned up with next to no miles on them. I am always astounded by these cars since they seem to go against the express purpose of the car, and create a major conundrum for the prospective buyers.

Cars are designed and built to be driven. Like any other machine, they must be operated on a fairly regular basis in order to maintain their mechanical integrity. If a car is never started, never run, never moved, and never driven, critical parts, such as seals, gaskets, and bearings begin to rot and fail. Cars aren't paintings and they aren't designed to be left on static display. Despite all of this, people occasionally purchase a car and hide it away in the hope that someday it will be worth something, a brand new old car, if you will.

The problem that arises, however, is what do you do with a car like that? Take the vehicle I have pictured here, a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS6 Coupe. The car has only 29 miles, after having been stored in a climate controlled environment for the last 36 years. As such, it is a brand new, three and a half decade old car. It is not just any Chevelle, either, but an LS6, the top of the line model with the most potent engine. A car like this commands a huge price, but what do the low miles do for the car? On the one hand, it is unique to find a car with so few miles, giving the car the special title of 'most original Chevelle LS6 in the world.' Fancy stuff. On the other hand, it is only going to remain unique, and maintain its high price as a result of its low miles, if it is never driven.

A prisoner's dilemma is created. If you drive the car, it loses a huge amount of value for ever click of the odometer. If you don't drive the car, you have basically purchased a very large sculpture and can never enjoy the car for its intended purpose; but you don't lose any money as a result of added miles. Either way, it is a sour deal. This is just one man's opinion, but as far as I am concerned, ultra-low miles cars are waste of money. They rarely command a price that is significantly higher than their more well driven brethren, and their entire purpose is lost as a result of the aforementioned dilemma created by their unique nature. For my money, I'd avoid them and stick with something you can enjoy, a car you vintage can drive with little worry about the cost of depreciation per mile.

Oh, and if you're curious about what happened to the Chevelle, it was a no sale at $330,000 at Mecum fall auction three weekends ago.

Somewhere West of Laramie: Vintage Advertising Genius

Advertising is everywhere. The world we live in today is fueled by ads and they are probably the chief content provider for the world today since every major media outlet is fueled by them. Needless to say, advertisements, in all of its forms, have had a distinct and noticeable effect on our culture. One example of this genius in advertising was the 1923 campaign by the Jordan Motor Car Company.

Jordan was founded in 1916 in Cleveland, OH by former advertising executive Edward S. Jordan. A pioneer in evocative advertising copy, Jordan tried his hand at the automobile business building cars mostly from parts purchased elsewhere. Drawing from his previous endeavored, Jordan gave his cars ear-catching names like Playboy, Tomboy, and Sport Marine. Exciting color schemes and more provocative styling was also part of the package, which encapsulated otherwise unrevolutionary vehicles (save for their all steel construction).

What vaulted Jordan into then annals of automotive history and kept the name of the obscure company alive was its June, 1923 advertising campaign. One of the first automotive marketing programs directed specifically at women, the ads featured the tagline 'Somewhere West of Laramie,' and a description not of the car, but of a wild spirited young woman driving across the American wilderness somewhere west of Laramie, WY.

The campaign worked and helped Jordan prosper until 1931, when the market become too competitive for small producers like Jordan. While his company was gone, the slogan, which has been named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of all time (coming in at #30), keeps the Jordan spirit alive. Few Jordans survive today, but you can still find them around. Fine examples are on display at the Crawford Auto Museum in Cleveland, OH on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. The two models on display there are a 1920 Jordan Playboy Roadster and a 1929 Speedboy G Phaeton.

Pedal Cars For Grown-Ups

While leafing through the most recent issue of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book catalog, the quintessential tome for holiday excess, I ran across one of the special gifts that pop up every year in the book. While the new BMW M6 convertible (which sold in record time) has stolen most of the spotlight, the Twike 'Human-Electric Hybrid' is what seems to be the most unique automotive oddity offered. The bulbous little car (which looks a little like a 1959 Velorex Oskar)works on the same basic principles as any other hybrid car, using an engine (in this case, you peddling) and regenerative braking to charge the batteries. The car claims a range of 90 miles on a charge and a top speed of 55 mph.

While this is all good and fine, it is certainly nothing new. The pebble/engine concept has been around about as long as the car probably has. Since cars tended to be larger, however, pedal power usually was not feasible, except in the case of the Flintstones. There were a number of cars that had gas engines with pedal assist, however, similar to mopeds. One company, Velocar, built a business around pedal powered cars with small engines (and also produced the first recumbent bike). A simple Velocar was basically four-wheeled bike with a little engine in it. Other companies also built similar vehicles.

So, as usual, nothing is new, it is just refreshed and revised.

Photos, clockwise from lower left, are of the Twike, a 1967 Benelli Delivery Vehicle, and a 1935 Velocar Camionette.